224 SOLANACE.E. 



styles. —Archiv. Apoth. viii. 54; Reichenb. Ic. Crit. t. 693; Choisy, I.e. C. densifiora, 

 Soyer-Willem. in Act. Soc. Linn. Par. iv. 28L — Flax-fields of Europe, doing much injury, 

 occasionally appearing in those of the Atlantic States. (Adv. from Eu.) 



Oeder XCV. SOLANACE^. 



Herbs, shrubs, or even trees, commonly rank-scented, with watery juice, alternate 

 leaves and no stipules ; the inflorescence properly terminal and c3'mose, but 

 variously modified, sometimes scorpioid-racemiform in the manner of Borraginacea 

 and Hydrophyllacece, the pedicels either not accompanied by bracts or not in their 

 axils ; flowers perfect and regular (or only slightly irregular) and 5-4-merous ; 

 the stamens as many as and alternate with the corolla-lobes; these induplicate- 

 valvate or plicate (rarely merely imbricate) in the bud ; ovary wholly free, nor- 

 mally 2-jcelled with Indefinitely many-ovuled axile placentae, and surmounted by 

 an undivided style : stigma entire or sometimes bilamellar ; ovules anatropous or 

 amphitropous ; fruit either capsular or baccate ; embryo terete and incurved or 

 coiled, or sometimes almost straight, in fleshy albumen, the cotyledons rarely 

 much broader than the radicle. The leaves, although never truly opposite, are 

 often unequally geminate, so as to appear so. Obviously distinguished from Con- 

 voh'ulacece by the greater number and the character of the seeds, less definitely so 

 from ScrophulariacecB by the regular flowers with isomerous stamens and plicate 

 or valvate testivation of the corolla, and centrifugal inflorescence, but in the last 

 tribe nearly confluent with that order by the imperfection or abortion of one or 

 three of the stamens, and some obliquity and bilabiate imbrication of the limb or 

 lobes of the corolla. Nicandra has a regularly 3-5-celled ovary ; that of Lycoper- 

 sicum, &c., becomes several-celled in cultivation ; that of Datura is spuriously 

 4-celled. 



Bassovia 1 HEBEPODA, Dunal in DC. Prodr. xiii. 407, characterized from a specimen com- 

 municated to De Candolle by Teinturier of New Orleans, in fruit only, is a mere riddle. It is 

 said to resemble Bassovia lucida. 



WiTHANiA MoRisoNi, Dunal, 1. c, is doubtless not a Virginian or even a Mexican plant. 

 From the figure it is likely to have been W. somnifera, as Dunal suggested. 

 Tribe I. SOLANE^E. Corolla (mostly short) with the regular limb plicate or val- 

 vate in the bud, usually both, i.e. the sinuses or what answers to them plicate and the 

 edges of the Igbes induplicate. Stamens (normally 5) all perfect. Fruit baccate 

 or at least indehiscent, sometimes nearly dry. Seeds flattened: embryo cun-ed or 

 coiled, slender ; the semiterete cotyledons not broader than the radicle. 

 * Anthers longer than their filaments, either connivent or connate into a cone or cylinder : 

 corolla rotate: calyx mostly unchanged in fruit: parts of the flower 5 or varymg to 

 more, especially in cultivation. 



1. LYCOPERSICUM. Anthers connate into a pointed cone, tipped with an empty closed 

 acumination ; the cells dehiscent longitudinally down the inner face. Otherwise as m the 

 next, but leaves always pinnately compound. 



2. SOLANUM. Anthers connivent or lightly connate : tlie cells opening at the apex by a 

 pore or short slit, and sometimes also longitudinally dehiscent even to the base; the con- 

 nective inconspicuous or obsolete. 



m * Anthers unconnected, mostly shorter than their filaments, destitute of terminal pores, 

 dehiscent longitudinally. 



H- Calyx not investing the fruit, nor much changing under it. 



3. CAPSICUM. Calyx short, either truncate or merely 5-6-dentate. Corolla rotate, 

 deeply 5-6-cleft, valvate in the bud, not plicate. Anthers oblong or somewhat cordate. 

 Berry, or juiceless and thin-coriaceous pericarp, acrid-pungent, girt only at base by the 

 nearly unchanged calyx. 



